Category Archives: YA Ink/Writing Tips

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You’ve all heard me talk quite a bit about novel outlining. Over the years I’ve used a few different methods to get the same result, but what I haven’t talked about is how I also like to outline my novel while I write. When I outline my novels I start by making a simple chapter-by-chapter outline of my novel of what I want to happen. As I write each chapter, I go into more detail, answering the who, what, where, when and why questions. This means that whenever I write, I have two Word documents open. One of my actual manuscript, and another of my chapter guide. Once I finish writing a chapter in the manuscript, I hop over to my chapter guide and input the information there.

Why Does it Work?

Keeping a chapter guide keeps you organized in your story. You know what happened when and if you forget something you’ve written, you don’t have to jump back into the manuscript, you can just jump back to the chapter in your chapter guide.

The answer to What is the most important (in my humble opinion). If I can’t get a good answer to What, then that means I’ll have some re-writing to do when draft 3 comes along.

Keep in mind that when you create your chapter guide, you’re the only person who will read it. Don’t worry about proper sentence structure. These are your notes. Use bullet points and write only about what’s important. This is not the place to write long sentences of description.

Side note: You don’t have to create your chapter guide as you go. Sometimes I like to use it after I’ve finished the first draft of my manuscript and I’m getting ready for draft 2. By going through each chapter and answering these questions, I not only see any holes in the plot, but I’m able to see what chapters drag on too much and maybe need a touch of excitement.

This week I’m teaming up with the wonderful Kristen Martin. If you haven’t heard of her already, be sure to check out her YouTube channel and check out her videos on writing! But this week Kristen and I are talking about three things that keep us motivated. After to watch my video, be sure to check out Kristen’s here: https://youtu.be/gKU1mq1NAzk

Surround Yourself With Other Authors

My biggest motivator is surrounding myself with other writers. Have you noticed that as I’ve written more, I’ve been collabing more with other author YouTubers? That’s not a coincidence. Working with other authors and following their social networks is a huge motivator, and it pushes me to work harder. For example, I met Kristen in person at this year’s BookCon, and after I saw her at BookCon I’m more motivated than ever to work hard so I can find myself at BookCon some day. And let’s face it, most of us who watch writing videos on YouTube aren’t watching them to learn, we’re watching them to get motivated.

Talk About Your Writing

I love to fake it to make it. Tell yourself you’re a writer and you’ll eventually live up to it. Tell people about your writing, that way they’ll start asking, “Hey, Mandi, how’s that book doing?” And hopefully, you’ll say, “Great, I just wrote another 1,000 words last night!” Hold yourself accountable for your writing. Make it so people will check in on you. Tweet about it on social media talk about it on your YouTube channel. Make it so you have to write so you have something to tell other people when they ask about your book. And then when you’re done writing it, they might just want to read it!

Give Yourself Something to Write About

While locking yourself away to write is great, you have to make sure you experience your life. I recently had a conversation with the graphic designer from my job and we were talking about the benefits of travel. When you travel you open your eyes to new things. When you’re on vacation you notice things differently: textures, smells, sounds. Take note of them when you’re on vacation and use them in your writing. I love to travel and one of my favorite ways to do this is through hiking. I have a second channel where my boyfriend and I go hiking and we use my GoPro to film. If you’re interested in our adventures, check out our YouTube channel, DustySnowboots. (Those are our trail names…).

How do you motivate yourself to write? Let me know in the comments below! And don’t forget to watch Kristen’s video!

This is not book-related at all. This week’s video is purely about showing off my family’s new little puppy Dawson. Dawson is a 9 week old (at the time of filming) Shih Tzu. He’s the cutest little ball of fluff and even though he likes to bite anything near his face, he’s still absolutely adorable! See his debut on Youtube!

So you may remember my recent post? I said I was revealing the title of my third novel? Not to make it seem like it was click bait–I had all the intentions of revealing the title of my newest novel–but…I may have overlooked one tiny detail. I originally said my third novel was going to be titled Remedy for Memory, but there’s another wonderful Youtuber, Brista Drake, who has a book titled Remedy for Memory. Now Brista has been awesome and said I can title my book that as well, but after feeling a little bit silly for not remembering that was the title of her book (I follow her on YouTube for God’s sake!) it just doesn’t feel right to title my novel Remedy for Memory.

For now, novel #3 has no title, but it will I promise! And when it does I won’t have the same issue!

I wanted to spend today talking about how you should choose a title for your novel. More specifically, if you’ve chosen a title, making sure it will work for you.

Do Book Titles Have Copyright?

The good news is books can have the same title. There is no copyright over titles unless it’s a book that has an “image.” This would be the case for something like Harry Potter. Harry Potter is a trademark, if you used the name in your title you would get sued if it caught their lawyer’s eyes. While you can legally use the same book title as someone else, it’s not always the best idea.

Same Titles?

It’s important to do a Google or Goodreads search when you’re titling your novel. It’s okay if a title is the same as another book, but it shouldn’t be a book in the same genre simply because you don’t want people confusing the two books. Now the book I’m writing and the book Brista published aren’t technically in the same genre, but we use the same marketing techniques. We both appear on YouTube, so our books, and ourselves are bound to bump into each other. With the same titles, things would just get confusing.

Does the Title Fit the Genre of the Book?

Just like you want your cover art to speak for the genre, you want the title of your book to speak for the genre as well. Often times you’ll know a romance novel from a mile away because of the title, and that’s a good thing! A lot of books will get bad reviews because their cover art or title was misleading. Some readers don’t always check what genre a book is, so when they pick up a book with a title like The Floral Night and it ends up being a book with blood and gore, odds are a reader will leave a not-so-good review.

Most of all you just want to make sure the title feels right to you. Play around with a few different options until you find out what’s right for you. And don’t do what I did and announce the book title is absolutely final and you’ve done your research.

What are some of the titles of your novel/works in progress? Share them in the comments below!

The New York Times Bestseller list. It’s a goal all author aim for. Once you’re on that list, you get that title for life. For every book your write, you get “New York Times Bestselling Author” printed on the cover of all your books. Unfortunately, getting this goal is a little complicated and the first step to getting on the list is to know how it works. So let’s break it down!

Self-Published? Not Going to Happen

You can be a bestseller on Amazon (which is still amazing!) you just won’t be a bestseller per the New York Times. Self-published books can never reach the mass quantity of sales needed to hit the bestseller title and in a little bit, you’ll see why.

I Have to Pre-Order How Many?

So the bestseller list is, in theory, based upon sales the first week a book is published. You sell the most books that week out of all new released? Bam! You’re a bestseller. But the thing is, in order to sell a huge amount of books, you have to have huge amounts of books to sell. A bookstore isn’t just going to magically stock hundreds of copies of your book. Last I checked you have to sell about 10,000 pre-orders of your book for your published to be like, “Well this is awesome, we need to thousands of books to sell!” Preorders are how publishers gauge how many sales they expect to make. Bookstores also use preorders to determine how many more books they want to order on top of that to sell to those who haven’t yet preordered the book.

But My Publisher Will Print Thousands of Copies!

There’s a lot of prep that goes into traditional book publishing. Publishers have a professional media team that markets the heck out of books so they can make the most out of that first week of sales. The thing is, they aren’t going to do this marketing or printing of thousands of copies unless they are 99.9% sure your book is bestseller material.

It’s About Supply and Demand

Or in this case, demand and supply. Once again, your publisher and bookstores will only request a huge supply of books if there’s a demand for it. And of course, you have to write a good story.

So do I, a self-published author, still dream of being on the New York Times Bestseller list? Of course! I’m an author and I could love to have that title! I don’t care if behind the scenes things are a little screwy and not fair. As long as I’m writing, I will continue to shoot for this dream (no matter how unrealistic it may seem).

Find me on Instagram! @mandilynnwrites Stay tuned for my vlog of my first experience at BookCon!

Today I’m doing a collaborative video/post with another awesome writer who I know you’ll love. Meet Shaelin Bishop, another writer on youtube. Today we both decided to discuss some of the many different things writers learn throughout their career. After reading/watching my points, be sure to check out Shaelin’s video. And if you haven’t subscribed to her already, be sure to do that!

What Are Some Things Every Writer Learns?

Hater’s Gonna Hate-

Not everyone is going to enjoy your writing, it’s just a fact. The larger audience you reach, the more haters you’ll gain. But also keep in mind, your fans will always outweigh your haters and it’s your fans you need to listen to. If you have haters, then congratulations, because this means you’re at least semi-famous and people have invested enough time and enjoy into their daily life to dislike you. Take it as a compliment.

You Can’t Protect Your writing-

A lot of people are hesitant about sharing their writing when they first start off because they are terrified that their ideas are going to be stolen, then talk of copyright ensures. The fact of the matter is that no amount of copyright can protect your work. In theory it does, but there’s nothing stopping people from stealing your work unless you want to jump into a lawsuit. The only thing you can do is stay on top of things and report any abuse. Even best-selling authors get their work stolen. Just keep in mind, if someone steals your story, it means they like it, so it’s a compliment in a way. I’ve had my own novel stolen and uploaded to a site that was giving it away. The only thing I could do was report it, and I did and it was eventually taken down. If someone “steals your idea” you have to remember that there’s no original ideas, just an old story being told in a different way.

You’re More Than Just a Writer-

Whether you’re traditionally published or self-published you’ll end up doing a lot more than just writing. As a published author, you not only get to write, but you’re in charge of marketing yourself. Ultimately, your success is dependent on your hard work. As an author you’re in charge or writing, marketing, your website, going to book events and the content you create online. If you’re a self-published author your list of to-dos more than doubles because now you need to do everything your publisher would normally do for you on top of all your authorly duties.

Reedsy recently contacted me to do this #IWriteBecause video and I’m so happy to finally share it with all of you! If you’re a writer you’re invited to make your own #IWriteBecause video and submit it to Reedsy and for every submission, they will donate $10 to Room to Read which provides education to girls in Africa and Asia. Join the movement and share your love for writing!

Miss Desiraye Williams from the WordNerds is visiting us today! If you don’t know who the WordNerds are, be sure to check out their links below, I promise you’ll love their videos! Wondering where I am on this fine Tuesday? Well then hope on over here: http://bit.ly/2oZu9Qv

What makes a story? The plot or the characters? It can go either way, but if you’re lucky than the two elements work together to create a gripping novel for your reads. In drafting my third novel I’ve fallen in love with character profiling. I’ve done it in the past, but I was never a fan. The prompts are great to help you figure out who your characters are, but they don’t always help you move forward in plot. Instead you end up with a lot of backstory you now feel obligated to fit into your story.

Fan of Pinterest? I’ve got a board just for character development! Find me here!

I was able to come up with a few prompts that personally helped me develop my characters for novel #3, but it did more than just that. The questions below should help you brainstorm essential traits in your characters that will drive the story forward. Maybe you’ll answer the question and realize Sammy has a lot of attitude. What is she going to do to piss everyone else off in the story? Or what about Nancy? She had a divorce. What happened to her ex-husband? Is he going to show up again? Rocky and Willow hang out a lot. They’ve best friends obviously, but how did they meet? What the one thing that could tear them apart?

See what I’m going far? Go really behind the scenes. Shack things up a bit. Sit down with one of your characters now and ask them a few of these questions:

What’s their biggest fear? What’s the one thing that will tear them apart?

Got the answer? You should probably work it into the story somehow.

What are they trying to accomplish?

Let them get really close to accomplishing it. Then, you know, take it away.

How are the associated with other characters?

I know Rock and Willow met at a bar, but what is it about their two personalities that brought them together?

What past event has caused them to be the person they are today?

Is Sammy a bitch because of something that happened in high school? Maybe something that ruined her reputation? Now what if that little incident popped up again? Now that would be fun…

What’s their tipping point?

Make them reach their tipping point.

And of course you should probably figure out what your character looks like, but that’s not as exciting.

Most writers tend to have countless story ideas. This is great because we feel like we can go on forever writer! The most frightening thing for a writer is when they sick back and can’t think of anything to write. And that’s when writer’s doubt comes in. But today we’re going to be talking about the opposite problem, and that’s having too many story ideas to work with. How do you choose which one to write?

My Almost Second Novel

After I finished writing my first novel, Essence, I knew I wanted to continue writing, and I did! I started writing two novels. I am Mercy, which I’m sure you’re all familiar with, and a never-finished novel titled Ignorance. For a few months, I went back and forth on which manuscript to write. I loved the story for I am Mercy, but I was getting tired of writing in the world of an Essence. The fantasy novel I was working on was completely different and exciting! So which novel did I work on? I choose to work on Ignorance, which turned out to be a bust because it lost its luster and I got bored. The passion that called me to write Ignorance disappeared. I got to exercise my writing muscles and live in a different world for awhile, but in the end, I am Mercy was the story that needed to be told.

Go with Your Gut

The point of this little story is to say go with your gut. You have to write whatever story is calling to your most. At one point that had been Ignorance because I just wanted to write something different, but once I had done that for a little while I went back to working on I am Mercy. The thing you want to be careful with is sticking to your manuscript. Once you start it, try to finish it (unless it feels like a dead end like Ignorance, a novel that will never see the light of day). The last thing you want to do is have piles of unfinished manuscripts.